Hardware Removal Surgery Scheduled

So on 25th April, the specialist decided that the pins need to come out! He thinks that I've progressed "better than I thought you would" and that it was time to give me some help by removing the hardware. The Xray didn't show any significant shifting, but on comparison to earlier ones, the whole arrangement of pins and wires does appear to have moved downwards. It makes sense. All of the places where I feel to pokes and twinges have areas of spikes, knots or wire loops under the skin somewhere.

Bye Bye Pins, you did your job but now its time to get the hell out of my leg!

I realise that if they're not removed I'm just not going to progress any further as the anticipation of when the next stab is going to strike is just too restrictive during physio therapy sessions. He said he would mark my surgery request as urgent, but it could take up to 3 months! So I resigned to just "getting on with it" and doing what I can in the meantime. Until last Friday .....

I got the call to tell me my surgery had been scheduled for 16th May, to be fair to the hospital, just over 3 weeks after the request, now that is pretty good going for the NHS! I went in to sign permission forms on Monday and am due for a pre-op assessment tomorrow.

So instead of starting back to work full time next week, I'm preparing to be inactive again, for a couple of weeks at least. Oh well, one step forward and all that jazz ......

Shifting Pins

The problem with this knee injury is that when one problem starts to get better, another one raises its head! Over the past few weeks, I've been plodding on with the exercises, working on the ROM and quad strength simultaneously. Having finally got the quads to fire up again and the ROM past 90 degrees it now appears that the pins have shifted again and are causing a range of stabbing pains at various points around my knee cap.

Initially, when I get a "new" pain I tend to wonder "what's causing that one now?!" ... and then I check the Xray (see previous post) and realise that the pain is actually happening in or around an area where a pin or wire either goes into, comes out of or curves around a piece of bone! Its seems that as the swelling and scar tissues are healing, the hardware is becoming more prominent and alllowed to move around more easily. The latest thing this week is the appearance of a "bruise" where the pins are poking into the skin - I haven't knocked or bumped it so can only assume I'm bruising from the inside out?!

View of the bruise below right of my knee cap

Bruising from the inside out ?!

The protruding pins that are causing the bruises

Hence, as I'm working through my regime I'm getting new pains and twinges on a daily basis. Its like a guessing game, which bit will dig in today?

I have to admit its very frustrating! I still want to work on the ROM and the strengthening exercises, but each day there is something new to hold me back. A few weeks ago, a shifting pin at the top of the knee cap dug into the tendon so bad that I was unable to exercise the quads properly for a while and they began to fade away again. I don't want this to happen again, so I am dealing with it by only doing the exercises each day that don't give me pin stabs. If today the wire under my knee cap catches when I try to push the ROM, I will just concentrate on the quads. If tomorrow the pins at the top or side of my knee are digging into a tendon, I will just work on the ROM instead. Luckily, I haven't had a day when ALL of it hurts together yet!!

I can't have the hardware removed yet because the skin over and around my knee is still shiny and mottled. This apparently indicated some minor nerve damage that is still not healed and until that calms down the surgeon won't cut through the tissue again. Not sure how long it will be, a few months perhaps, but it will have to come out eventually and I can already imagine how much better it will feel when its done.